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Columbus City Schools board member Sarah Ingles speaks about document leak

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A member of the Columbus City School Board said Thursday she was responsible for forwarding the document to the Columbus Education Association, which is now at the center of controversy as the board considers closing district schools.

Board member Sarah Ingles stressed in a statement Thursday that she was speaking in a personal capacity and that she was the one who forwarded the document to the Columbus Education Association.

The document in question is a draft strategy for dealing with opposition to school closures and was first released Tuesday by the Columbus Education Association, the union that represents the district's more than 4,500 teachers and other education professionals. In its press release, the CEA said the document was racially divisive and called for a pause in the closure process and the resignation of board member Brandon Simmons.

More: Read the leak: What you need to know about the document at the center of a Columbus school scandal

Neither Simmons nor other school board members returned calls from The Dispatch seeking comment. On Tuesday, Simmons said in two hastily called news conferences that the document was the result of a collaboration with other board members and stakeholders.

On Thursday, Simmons released a statement on social media reiterating his claim that the document was part of a collaboration, but apologizing for its existence.

“I have failed our district,” he wrote. “The words in this document should not exist.”

Ingles said in a prepared press release that she was not present at any meeting where the document was shared and that she did not know of its existence until it was provided to her. She did not say who provided it to her.

“After serious consideration of what is best for the district and our students,” Ingles said, she decided to share the document.

“I was horrified and insulted when I read this,” Ingles said in the press release. “Our work in the district is too important for these kinds of divisive and absurd tactics.”

CEA President John Coneglio told The Dispatch he commended Ingles for doing the right thing. He said he released the document because he did not want the matter to be swept under the rug.

“Politicians who do the right thing need support,” Coneglio said. “I'm sure the district would have liked to handle this internally, but then we would still have these bad actors doing these things in the future because nobody knows about it.”

Who is Sarah Ingles?

Ingles is a first-term board member elected in November, with his term ending in 2027.

Ingles, a resident of the Near East Side, is currently Democratic legal counsel for the Ohio House of Representatives and previously worked as a union lawyer. Ingles campaigned on rebuilding trust and relationships with the CEA, The Dispatch previously reported.

CEA: District has implemented elements of leaked strategy document

In a press release Thursday, the CEA said the union's legal counsel sent a letter to Columbus City Schools purporting to provide evidence that the Board of Education had already implemented parts of the controversial leaked plan.

The letter to the district primarily points out irregularities in the seating arrangement and agenda as well as a change in location for the board meeting on Tuesday.

The press release also references the widely reported walkthrough of the poor conditions at Columbus Alternative High School and the better conditions at Downtown High School that took place on May 14. The leaked document details plans for a press conference “in our oldest and worst, most dilapidated building” that same day.

Coneglio said he does not believe Simmons acted alone.

“I don't think anyone acts alone,” Coneglio said. “Brandon (Simmons) was definitely part of that process – but I don't think Brandon was alone.”

More: Who is Brandon Simmons? What you should know about the CCS board member at the center of the leak scandal

In her only statement since publication, board chair Christina Vera said during Tuesday's board meeting that Simmons “was not asked to make recommendations and did so independently.”

She also said that the strategies outlined in the document “do not reflect the views of Columbus City Schools or the entire Board of Education” and that “no action has been or will be taken … to implement the suggestions of board members.”

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